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Protecting Pocahontas's World: The Mattaponi Tribe's Struggle Against Virginia's King William Reservoir Project, Allison M. Dussias

Allison M Dussias

This article examines the efforts of the Mattaponi Tribe of Virginia to combat an environmentally destructive reservoir project that threatened sacred and archaeological sites and implicated tribal treaty rights, including fishing rights. The Tribe opposed the project through both the federal and state administrative approval process and litigation. The dispute over the reservoir highlights the difficulties that tribes have faced historically, and continue to face today, as they try to protect their rights to land, water, and subsistence resources.